The campaign to get an air ambulance for Northern Ireland will take a step closer next week when thousands of signatures are presented at Stormont.

The push to get flying doctors in the region, which was championed by motorbike medic John Hinds, received a massive boost over recent days after just a handful of volunteers managed to collect around 8,000 signatures calling for the service.

The change.org petition states: “Throughout his life, John campaigned for Northern Ireland to get its own air ambulance. Northern Ireland is still the only region of the UK without this service. Air Ambulances can respond to crisis faster and more effectively than any other type of ambulance - dramatically increasing a person’s chances of survival.”

Thousands, including many from the biking world, turned out for Dr Hinds's funeral.

Stephen Henderson, a friend of Dr Hinds who helped start the change.org petition along with another friend John Allen, said they have been overwhelmed by the support.

Stephen, who is a well known road racing photographer, added: “We had got well over 60,000 signatures supporting the campaign so we’re very pleased with that. But we found out last Friday night that unlike Westminster, they don’t accept online petitions to start debates up there, only ones on paper and they needed at least 1,000.

“So we get a few volunteers together and started with the Ulster Grand Prix on Saturday. By 12pm on Saturday we had 2,000 signatures and since then it’s just been amazing, really heartening to be honest. We’ve not even counted them all yet, but there’s around 8,000 at least.”

Stephen says presenting the signatures to MLAs at Stormont on Tuesday is only another small step towards getting an air ambulance as there are many other issues including improving infrastructure to be dealt with before it would be feasible.

He added: “Getting to Stormont will be important in that it’ll help getting the debate going and raise the profile of the issue, but there’s a long way to go yet. John was so passionate about the air ambulance, that’s why this means so much to so many people as he touched a lot of people’s lives. We’ve lost a friend, that’s why we are carrying on what he was doing.”

Stephen added that although Dr Hinds was heavily involved in the road racing circuit and the push for an air ambulance has received a lot of support that sport, the service will benefit everyone. Many air ambulances operates across the UK in rural areas as well as large cities like London.